Part 5: Assignment 5

Client Brief:

Client: Independent Stationery Shop in York city centre.

Brief: Create a Winter collection of five stationery items to be sold in the shop for this Winter season. Collection to include 3 x washi tapes, 10m roll, thickness up to you. 1 x Winter birthday card and 1 x shopping list notepad. Theme to be centred around the shop style, which is cosy, cute and practical. The shop hosts many other independent illustrators, therefore designs must be contemporary but unique to your style.

Audience: 25 years and up, planner addicts, organised individuals, list makers, loves to decorate diaries and bullet journals. Prefers to send unique cards and gifts to family and friends.

Deadline: Final Design Mock-ups to be received by email on 10th November 2022.

Research:

To research ideas for this project I looked at a wide range of resources beginning with the history of greeting cards from back in Victorian times. The styles back then were very ornate and tended to include Christian Bible scripture or a poem. I liked the gold swirls and the scrolls of flowers in some of the designs. The linework was also interesting since I usually like to line my illustrations. I then went on to look at Christmas cards by Beatrix Potter. These were harder to find but what I did find were quite detailed ink illustrations with a limited colour palette. I knew I wanted to include flowers in my final designs but I didn't know what approach I wanted to go for at this early stage. 

Looking at a variety of illustrators of the more cartoon style side such as; Tove Janssan, Love Is..., Smurfs, they all had the colours and more simplistic style that I enjoy. Whilst searching for Scandinavian illustrators because I enjoy the style, I then came across the work of Senbon Umishima, a Japanese illustrator whose colours and style really spoke to me. I studied her style from her book 'Rooms' and love the use of limited colour palettes. On a similar theme I found the book 'New Retro Illustration' produced by PIE International Inc. A collection of illustrations by various artists inspired by the 80's and 90's manga comics and anime. These bright, block colour illustrations really sparked my interest and again paying close attention to colour palettes and how simple shading techniques can produce effective results as apposed to putting in too much detail.

Included in my research were Master Painters such as Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Alfred Sisley and the Art Nouveau movement, specifically Alphonse Mucha's The Seasons: Winter. I wanted to look at these paintings in detail because I was curious as to how they portrayed the Winter season and flowers. I was once again looking at what details they included and how they simplified their strokes.

I find Alfred Sisley's painting 'Snow at Louveciennes' particularly moving, The brush strokes, the subtle tones in the snow and the ambience of this painting feel comforting to me. There is something magical about Sisley's painting that really captivates me. The book 'Impressionists in Winter' by Isaacson, Joel contains various Master Painters and their Winter themed paintings. I took all this in as inspiration for moving forward.

To gage an idea of what kind of Winter themed cards were already on the market I did some searches on Etsy.com and Thortful.com. These websites feature independent illustrators, so it gave me a good insight into what was available. I found a lot of nature inspired cards and some featuring fun things to do in Winter. The styles ranged from quite detailed nature scenes to more simplified vector style illustrations. I knew I wanted to keep my designs fairly simple but I wasn't sure at this stage how I was going to compose my designs.

As I moved forward in my research I looked into Christmas cards from the 1970's and 80's. I love the retro style and all the research I'd done so far was steering me to continue my love of vintage and use simple line work and a limited colour palette for my own illustrations. I thought about where I could find further retro inspiration and started searching for cards from the 70's and 80's because I remember them having some really cute and colourful designs. An online auction site has a whole host of designs available. The ones that particularly caught my eye were the teal coloured ones with the pinks and sparkly snowflakes. I like this unique colour palette, it reminds me of my childhood Christmases. These quirky designs gave me the additional inspiration I needed to move forward with my final designs.

Sketchbook Pages:

Brainstorming different ideas, based on the projects I have already enjoyed throughout this course.

Narrowed down my ideas to a Winter themed collection based on current inspirations and time of year. Personal goal to create washi tape for the first time, which presents a challenge in learning how to design and format the files suitable for printing by a real manufacturer.

Mind map of ideas for Winter themes.

Gathering inspiration and style ideas from my favourite illustrators.

Washi Tapes by: Apenas Illustrator, Katnipp Illustrations, Baylee Jae.

Looking at a whimsical, object theme. Initial rough sketches to test ideas. At this point I wasn't sure whether I wanted to go for an object theme or something more nature based.

Lately I've been very inspired by painter Annie Quigley who paints elaborate, romantic florals with a vintage colour palette. I decided to use this inspiration for my Winter theme as my work in general is very inspired by nature, animals and florals so this seemed a good fit.

After researching different Winter flowers, I started with some initial sketches and began thinking about what materials I would use.

I then began testing out washi tape ideas to get an idea of the style I wanted.

I tested different compositions for the florals and thought about Winter garlands, sprigs of foliage and bunches of roses. I like my compositions to be quite simple and uncluttered, so I rejected designs that looked too busy. I want to visually communicate a sense of calm and order for the target market of organised, bullet journalers.

Initial colour tests. Started with darker, more natural colours using markers and pencils I already had to hand.

A few sketches of Winter themed bouquets to gain more inspiration for types of flowers and foliage and potential design ideas for the greeting card.

Sketching ideas for the birthday card. After my initial bouquet sketches I felt they might dominate the card design too much and was testing out similar arrangements to place around the lettering.

Testing more washi tape ideas and colours. I had realised the initial colour ideas were too dark and I wanted something softer and calming. I decided to pick colours I find calming and use in my own illustrations, which bring a sense of my creative voice to the project.

Testing other ways to incorporate florals into the card design. I felt these took away from the beauty of the Winter florals and so discarded these ideas.

Practicing pinecones. I looked for real references around our local church yard but I had missed the season they are around and so I used royalty free references.

Reference photos used from Unsplash.

Testing out my own fonts.

Thinking about what types of fonts would work for the greeting card design. Looking at my research and the types of fonts used in those designs for the era they were made in. This influenced what I chose in the end. I wanted something quite flowing and delicate, that was easy on the eye and had a sense of romance to it.

My own hand drawn lettering.

I wanted the lettering to be foiled to give a sense of glamour and sophistication. People who celebrate their birthdays in Winter often get overlooked as they are over shadowed by Christmas celebrations. So I wanted my card design to feel really special and not too festive. 

I ruled out the silver foil as it feels quite a cold colour and would match more of a blue toned palette. I went with the gold because I felt that the gold brought more warmth to the design and I wanted that feeling for my collection. As you will see later on I do test out more blues, silver and snow, which I did like the look of but I wanted a warmer, tone to this project and changed the colours to match.

The reason I chose a warm palette is because I believe it communicates a sense of warmth in the viewer which can be comforting and calming. This is the overall feeling I wanted for this project.

Testing designs for the DL notepad.

Testing different layouts and eventually ruled out the borders as they made the notepad feel more cluttered and took away writing space. To achieve a sense of calm, I wanted the notepad design to be simple but beautiful, with plenty of room to write your lists.

Starting to think about final washi tape designs and the sticker designs that go on the front of the reel.

Practising roses.

Colour Tests:

To narrow down my colour choices and also to help decide on the final washi tape designs, I took photos of my sketchbook pages and put them into Procreate on my iPad and coloured them in to see what worked.

My Own References:

I enjoyed a walk around our local church yard to find these pine trees and berries. Unfortunately there were no pine cones around.

Designing Elements:

Initial Designs:

These designs just weren't clicking with me and so I went back and re-drew my elements and finally came up with the designs below which I am much happier with.

Final Mock Up's:

DL Shopping list notepad.

Reflection:

This final project was an exciting opportunity to create illustrated products in my own style and taking an in depth look at illustrators from Victorian times right up to modern day. I have wanted to design my own washi tape for a long time and this was a great opportunity to try it.

My art influences all contributed to my final outcome, using a wide range of research helped me to think outside the box and take a tradition theme and put my own spin on it. Initially I had a hard time deciding on my ideas. I knew I wanted to have a Winter flower theme but I wasn't quite sure which direction to take. As you can see from my sketchbook pages, I did a lot of experimenting before finalising my designs. I was initially looking to use more natural colours, I swatched some marker pens and created a colour palette with those. When I tried them out on my designs they just weren't clicking. I tried many designs before coming up with my final designs. For the greeting card I had in mind I wanted to do a bouquet design but during my draft phase they weren't working on a portrait format and landscape just didn't feel right either. I experimented with other compositions but nothing really clicked for me. It wasn't until I had created the washi tape designs at the end that I realised I could put all the elements together to create my own unique bouquet and fit it within the portrait format. This last design is far more successful than the one before. It has more of an impact and combines all the elements I intended from the beginning.

This project has taught me the importance of pushing my designs and experimenting a lot before committing to a final design. I did get frustrated with myself and felt quite blocked at some points but I kept pushing through and after talking to a friend, things started to click and I finally created designs I am proud of and hopefully my 'client' is also happy with these final mock ups.

References:

Patreon. 2022. aPenas Illustrator is creating cute illustrations | Patreon. [online] Available at: <https://www.patreon.com/apenasillustrator> [Accessed 17 October 2022].

Apenas, B., 2022. HOW TO MAKE WASHI TAPES 🌼 / Design, Preparing the files, Tips and Tricks / Artist STUDIO VLOG. [online] Youtu.be. Available at: <https://youtu.be/UTB9UOAbZ0A> [Accessed 17 October 2022].

Ranauro, I., 2022. How to create your own Washi Tapes and find a good manufacturer. [online] Youtu.be. Available at: <https://youtu.be/pLIvk_89VYc> [Accessed 17 October 2022].

Christmas tree card by Beatrix Potter Pack of 5 (2022) The Beatrix Potter Society. Available at: https://beatrixpottersociety.org.uk/shop-online/beatrix-potter-card-collection/christmas-tree/ (Accessed: November 10, 2022).

(no date) Victorian Christmas cards: An everyday work of art. Available at: https://victorianweb.org/technology/letters/christmascards.html (Accessed: November 10, 2022).

   Jansson, T., Tove Jansson [online] Available at: <https://tovejansson.com/gallery/tove-jansson-paintings/ HarborView>[Accessed 17 October 2022].

   Asprey, Bill., Love Is cartoon [Online] Available at: <https://www.artfulaspreycartoons.co.uk/> [Accessed 17 October 2022].   

VanderPloeg, S. (2021) Pierre Culliford, known as Peyo: The life and work of a marvellous storyteller, Artist's Edition Index. Available at: https://aeindex.org/reviews/pierre-culliford-known-as-peyo-the-life-and-work-of-a-marvellous-storyteller/ (Accessed: November 10, 2022).

Mackintosh, C.R. (no date) Mont Alba, National Galleries of Scotland. National Galleries of Scotland. Available at: https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/1652 (Accessed: November 10, 2022).

VanderPloeg, S. (2021) Pierre Culliford, known as Peyo: The life and work of a marvellous storyteller, Artist's Edition Index. Available at: https://aeindex.org/reviews/pierre-culliford-known-as-peyo-the-life-and-work-of-a-marvellous-storyteller/ (Accessed: November 10, 2022).

Metmuseum.org. Available at: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/681023 (Accessed: November 10, 2022).

 Search the collection: Collection: Fleming collection (no date) A window into Scottish Art. Available at: https://www.flemingcollection.com/collection/search-the-collection/butterfly-flower-bowling-1912-528 (Accessed: November 10, 2022).

MeisterDrucke (no date) Snow at louveciennes, 1878 by Alfred Sisley (#86530), MeisterDrucke. Available at: https://www.meisterdrucke.uk/fine-art-prints/Alfred-Sisley/86530/Snow-at-Louveciennes,-1878-.html (Accessed: November 10, 2022).

Metmuseum.org. Available at: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437686 (Accessed: November 10, 2022).

Moffett, C.S. (1998) Impressionists in winter: Effets de Neige. London: Phillips Collection in collaboration with Philip Wilson.

Umishima, S. (2022) Rooms: An illustration and comic collection by Umishima Senbon. Tokyo: Pie International.

Sayawaka (2020) New retro illustration: Retro reimagined by a new generation. Tokyo: PIE International.

Robertson, P. (1996) Charles Rennie Mackintosh: Art is the flower. London: Pavilion Books.

Meyoco (2021) Polaris: The art of meyoco. Tokyo, Japan: PIE International.